The present invention relates to an improved all purpose football place kicking tee. A large number of football place kicking tees are known in the art. Most of these kicking tees perform only one of the many functions for which kicking tees are needed both in practice situations and game situations for the kicker. The following prior art U.S. Patents are known to applicants:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,087,726 to Pogue discloses a football kicking tee including nails 2 and 2' which anchor the tee 1 in the ground. The tee further includes uprights 4 and 4' which are pivotable to a position whereby they support the football 11 in an upright position. This device has serious limitations since the pins 2 and 2' preclude its use on an artificial surface and its lack of adjustability allows it tp perform only one of the many functions needed in football kicking tees.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,105,686 to Elsea discloses a kicking tee designed to allow a kicker to practice place kicking a ball supported substantially at ground level. The device includes a base portion 10 which is supported in the ground by pegs 16 with points 17. A member 12 is made of a flexible material and is designed as shown in FIG. 3 to overlie the top portion of the ball to thereby support it in an upright position. This kicking tee has severe limitations because (1) the pegs 16 preclude its use on an artificial surface, (2) the member 12 which supports the ball has a large area and would inherently alter the normal trajectory of the ball as it is being kicked out from under it, and (3) this kicking tee has no provision for adjustable elevation of the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,309,087 to Cullity discloses a football kicking tee designed to elevate a football to a level two inches above the ground. This tee is a fixed device and although it is usable on both natural and artificial turfs, it is not adjustable in height and does not provide any means for resiliently supporting the football from below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,145 to Shirley, et al. discloses a tee including an arm member 16 which is biased by tension spring 23 to hold a football F in an upright position on the ground through point 18. While this football kicking tee enables a ball to be supported on the ground, the support mechanism 16, 18 inherently places more pressure on the football F than would be put on the football F by a holder's finger. Further, this kicking tee is not usable in any game situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,602 to Tatter discloses a football kicking device which includes adjustability of the height of the surface from which the ball is kicked. While this device includes a few features generally related to the concepts taught in the present invention, it also has severe drawbacks in that (1) with the legs 22 and 24 folded in a closed position, the kicking device includes no means such as ribs, etc. to prevent the device from being easily moved on the surface on which it rests; (2) the kicking device has only one surface from which the ball may be kicked, to wit, the surface 18; (3) the kicking device includes no structure which would permit practicing of place kicking off a ground level surface; and (4) the kicking device includes no means which would enable support of the football entirely below without the use of any supporting legs, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,940 to Ball discloses a tee for supporting an unusually shaped ball 10. The tee includes a plug 20 designed to be inserted into the ground surface and a pair of up raised portions 18 which grip the sides of the end of the ball 10 to support it in an upright position. This device has several drawbacks as concerns the present invention: (1) the portions 18 which resiliently grip the ball 10 extend upwardly at great distance along the longitudinal extent of the ball 10 and would tend, inherently, to affect the natural motion of the ball 10 as it being kicked away from the tee; (2) the portion 20 which is used to insert the tee into the ground precludes its use on artificial turf; (3) the tee has no use in any game situation or in any situation involving the use of an actual football.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,948 to Gerela discloses a football place kicking device including a platform 4 from which a rod 6 and a flexible portion 18 protrude, with the flexible portion 18 including an end 20 which resiliently engages the top of a football 22 to support it on the ground. While the platform 4 enables the device's use on all surfaces, this means of support of a football from above has been found, as explained above to place forces on the football which affect its trajectory after being kicked away from the portion 20.
The following prior art design patents are also known to applicant: U.S. Pat. Nos. Des 150,195 to Barton, Des. 173,778 to Agajanian, Des. 176,029 to Martin, Des. 195,088 to Box, Des. 202,433 to Cullity, Des. 231,003 to Ponder and Des. 266,015 to Patton. Of these design patents, only the following are believed to be even remotely related to the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 231,003 to Ponder shows a kicking block having what appears to be a round depression formed therein as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 thereof. It is possible that this is not a depression but rather merely a surface with a different surface treatment than the rest of the surrounding surface which appears to have a dimpled recess surface. Further, it is noted that this circular "depression" bears no resemblance to the configuration of the end of a football.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 266,015 to Patton discloses a kicking tee including as best shown in FIG. 1 a cavity formed above a base portion of the tee which cavity apparently is designed to support a football and which base further includes what appears to be an arrow portion. With regard to these two features, () it will become apparent from reading the specification herein, that the patentee in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 266,015 had no conception of the shape of the end of a football since the cavity shown in this design patent appears to have a continuous curved surface rather than the surface disclosed herein which comprises 4 curved surfaces joined together at the respective ends; (2) the arrow shown in this design patent is formed as an integral part of the base portion and is quite small with respect to the base portion as opposed to the arrow of the present invention which is disclosed as being detachable from the base poriton and quite large by comparison to the size of the base portion.